Home Sweet Home!

Arrived home about 5:00 this afternoon. Boy, Salt Lake to Boise is a drag! Never seems to end!

Anyway, it was a great trip! We met our objectives and found lots of things we didn't know about besides. 2500 miles in 8 days. Some would say we were nuts! The VW ran like a charm- 46 mpg. The weather was fantastic. Six days in a row with NO clouds.

Gas in Salt Lake was cheap by Idaho standards! Although, when we returned to Boise we noticed the price had dropped 15 cents or so since we left - now reg is only $3.49! (Diesel doesn't vary as much as gas)

We arrived home to our fabulous Costco mum plant.

Now, for our next road trip..........................

Provo, Utah 10/7/14

Capital Reef NP and 2 Great New Roads Found

The cloudless sunny skies are with us yet again! We haven't seen a cloud since our first day at Grand Canyon. We spent this morning exploring Capital Reef Nat'l Park. The cliff faces and rock formations are incredible! History here includes a Mormon settlement called Fruita from the 1880s to the 1940s and some Native American petroglyphs from before 1300. There is an effort to replenish the fruit orchards.

We finished up at CR by noon. we could have headed directly west to I-15 but, no, that was too boring so we headed due north to see what we could find. (For those of you who are following along) Route 72 from Lyman, UT, to the junction of I-70 is awesome! Beautiful smooth driving road up and over the pass at 9000 feet. Great vistas where you could see forever and lots of fall foliage.

Down the other side, we picked up Rt 10 north to Huntington. Not nice. Desert wasteland. Then we headed NW up Rt 31 for about 50 miles to Fairview. This was another AWESOME road, completely different. It wound up the canyon in the Manti-La Sal National Forest, finally topping out at 9800 feet! Several reservoirs and lots and lots of yellow fall colors.

Down the other side, we followed rts 89 and 6 and ended up in Spanish Fork at yet another Best Western/Dennys. A great day of exploration!

Home tomorrow! Are we ready yet? Only because we have to do laundry.

Main Street Torrey, UT

Broken Spur Motel & Restaurant

Fruita schoolhouse

Rt 72

Lunch at 9000 feet

Rt 31

9800 feet - it must snow here

Route 95 to Torrey, Utah

This is why we love Utah! We left the ugliness of northern AZ and NM from Farmington/Bloomfield and headed north up Rt 505 into Durango, CO.....that's much better! Then over 8300' pass to Cortez and on up to Monticello, Utah. Lots of agriculture here. Then down to Blanding, where we picked up Route 95. This is the most awesome road ever! I used to think Rt 12 from Bryce Canyon to Torrey was tops, but this may beat it! At every turn there's a different formation. About 120 miles of spectacularness! We stopped at the Natural Bridge Nat'l Monument for some short hikes and magnificent views down into the canyon. We crossed the Colorado River and the upper end of Lake Powell (no water, of course) in what was really the start of the Grand Canyon. Nearing Torrey the road actually passes through part of Capital Reef Nat'l Park.

At the Natural Bridge park we met a young couple from Switzerland who were literally driving around the world in their 1990 VW Microbus camper. The map on the door shows where they'd been so far (he adds white tape each day). Next it will be down to Mexico and South America! Those are mountain bikes strapped on the back. They'd had the car shipped from Antwerp to Baltimore ($2500 and 3 weeks).We wished them well....we'll read their blog!

After about 350 miles today we finally arrived at Torrey at the Broken Spur Motel and Steakhouse. It was very good!! Not sure where we'll end up tomorrow, somewhere around Salt Lake City. Then home on Tuesday.

Boat Launch at Lake Powell

Colorado River

Chaco Culture National Historical Monument

Today we visited the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, about and hour and half south of Bloomfield, New Mexico, in the middle of nowhere! Here we found a series of "great houses" and other structures built by the Chacoans who lived here for 300 years, from 850A.D. to about 1150 A.D. There are many theories as to why they left, or why they came here in the first place.

Our guide, Ranger Cornucopia (yes,that's his name) was VERY informative. He knew all the theories and had a few of his own!

The weather was absolutely perfect - mid 70s, not a cloud in the sky. Returned back to Bloomfield by about 6:00, had a great supper at Sonya's right across the street. Tomorrow we head back north into Utah and toward home. Missions accomplished - North Rim and Chaco - plus lots more!